Monday, April 20, 2009

RATL #1 A very fast race.

Carbon Racing put Brian, Tris and Dan in the initial split. A big group off the front that splintered when Paul Martin, Dan Quinlan and Jeremy Grimm took off. The main field absorbed the remainder of the group and within a few laps it was race on for the rest of the race.

The speed was really high almost the whole race with attacks and counters being shot off for the remaining 5 paying spots. Dan who had ridden 43 headwind miles to the race that morning for the added training got popped when he tried to stick with Jeremy who was attacking the break. Once he was back Carbon racing and all of the other teams knew we were racing for 3rd place.

I was actually surprised that some guys didnt know actually. But once it got back around that 3-8th were up for grabs the racing got even faster with many laps of 26.5+mph ave speed. Everyone was attacking all race long, but now people were getting tired and the attacks were being more damaging. We started with about 47 and a good 15 or more riders were shed all over the course it looked like.

We weren't firing on all cylinders I'll admit. I think we didn't race to our strengths as we did Sunday. But with a few laps to go a split occurred that was exactly 6 riders and they put time into the rest of us. Brian made the split of course. The split was a strong group of riders so that was that for the paying spots. And yes-I missed it again!! I'm getting good at this. :(

With about one and a quarter laps to go Tris took off with Jake Lifson from Indiana Medical and I followed a rider up and as the pace slowed at the start finish I took off really hard and soloed in for 9th with a 26.5 ave speed last lap. I am sure the motivation to chase me down was very low being the first non paying spot, but as I have said before-its good training. Luckily for me Bob Grimm caught it on video. Thank you Bob and for the compliment!!

I will say my jump is getting a bit better as it has to chasing so much crap down. After Presque Isle this weekend I need to work that top end more so I can come across a gap to a bunch of pro leve/Cat.1's breaking away instead of just pulling other teams close enough to jump across without me..arrgghhh.

Racing has been fun so far this year in Ohio. Also its great to see riders from other local teams like Lake Effect and John Lowry and his Stark Velo team mates sticking their noses in the wind and mixing it up at every turn. What a fast and aggressive summer this is going to become. I also hope the 40 to 60 person Cat I II III fields continue too.

About Me

Hello fellow racers. I am a racer from old back again for a 2nd try. I raced in the late 80's and early 90's before a decade in the Hotel and Restaurant business and 70 to 90 hour weeks stopped my racing. Finally in the summer of 2006 I got the bicycle bug again and it wasnt even a few rides when I said "I'm gonna race again!!" So here I am on my way back to a healthier lifestyle and what I love almost more than anything else, Racing!!!